In fluid supply systems for single sheet flow cell processors it is customary to provide fairly large tubes along the supply and drain sides of the flow cell to provide a center fed manifold flow distribution. When fluid enters the system it enters the supply manifold at the center and immediately begins spreading out through the adjacent small slit in to the cell. As the fluid works its way along the supply manifold, it spreads out through more of the slit, eventually completely filling the cell. Those areas of the flow cell furthest from the supply receive the incoming fluid last. Such a prior art cell and its fluid distribution pattern is depicted in FIG. 1 of the drawings.
The above described flow cell processor possesses a number of disadvantages. It is difficult to design, dependent on flow rates and fluid characteristics and does not achieve uniform processing due to variations in the fluid path length to various parts of the processor and variable pressures in the supply manifold. As indicated in FIG. 1 the path variations and/or variations in pressures within the supply manifold results in a generally arcuate fluid front resulting in increased processing in the center regions relative to the edge regions and differential lateral fluid flow.
Similar non-uniform fluid distribution can occur in parallel plate processors of the type disclosed in U.S. application Ser. Nos. 07/633,505 and 07/633,521 which are cross referenced above. In a parallel plate processor fluid is injected into a web processing channel through at least one elongated slit extending transversely of the channel. If fluid is supplied to the slit by a central circular opening then areas of the slit furthest from the central opening will receive fluid last and at slightly lower pressures. As a result the fluid entering the channel from the slit will have an arcuate flow pattern similar to that depicted in FIG. 1. Thus the fluid discharged from the slit will reach the central region of the web prior to the edge regions and flow at the center region will remain at a higher rate due to the higher pressure to produce non uniform processing.